


Carmine Boy

by belcourts



Category: The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Backstory, Hunger Games, Sexuality, im giving justice to my favorite career ok, short first chapter sorry fsksksk, small anxiety tw, the hunger games careers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 03:51:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18003278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belcourts/pseuds/belcourts
Summary: Marvel Ballard, he hated that name, too bad it was his.





	Carmine Boy

As a District One Career, you are expected to volunteer for the yearly Hunger Games, and win. Marvel Ballard’s family had high expectations for him, everyday they forced him to train until he was on the edge of fainting. Marvel wasn’t ready for this, he was so, so fragile. When he was 12, he had told himself he was going to win the games, to make his family and District proud. As he grew older, his confidence slipped away so quickly you wouldn’t have even thought it was there before, he watched as his family slowly gave up on him.

 

 “I’m not doing this anymore, Dad!” He was about to cry; his throat was flaming with frustration. “You’ve got 4 months until The Reaping, no stopping now” His father said as he walked out of his personal training room. Marvel threw his spear into the dummies’ chest in anger, he sat on the concrete floor and backed up against the wall. Tears formed at the rims of his eyes, he blinked them away quickly, feeling weak and useless all over again. Footsteps pattered into the training room, a blonde girl appeared in front of Marvel’s curled up body. She frowned, “Come on Marv, we have to get up.” Glimmer, his only friend in District One wrapped her arms around Marvel’s trembling body, “This is fucking evil, they can’t force us to do this.” Glimmer helped Marvel stand, she nodded mutely, “We can’t do anything, I’m sorry.” Marvel hated being weak, he hated watching Glimmer pity him, It’s a living hell, over and over.

 

After Marvel is exhausted form training, he usually watches the birds by his window, or sleeps. He had a weird fascination with birds, from cardinals to blue jays, they all had a special meaning to them. For cardinals, it was its radiant feathers that were so visible in the fresh snow, and for blue jays, you could hear its beautiful songs miles away. His father had always thought it was “unmanly” and “girly” which were just stupid, nonsense insults that didn’t affect Marvel in the slightest. Glimmer is always there to call his father out on his bullshit when she hears it herself, obviously Marvel must tell her to calm down before _he_ gets the blame for it. His father usually gets over it and says they’d _“be perfect”_ for one another because of their snappy attitudes, which always makes Marvel laugh, because Glimmer was a lesbian. And she would yell it from rooftops if she could, she was so proud, and it made Marvel feel guilty of also, liking the same gender. He constantly told himself he was never going to find love, he was so shy and anti-social it made him upset, he couldn’t help it.

 

His father tried to give him a job once, he got really fancied up and everything. His suit was tainted ruby, and had a soft silk feeling to it. He didn’t even recognize himself when he came out of his stylists’ room, the job wasn’t even _that_ serious. It was for a coffee shop downtown, an “elite” one according to Glimmer, an iced coffee addict. But as soon as he got to the managers door, he felt a knot twist together in his stomach, he started sweating bullets, “Dad, I- I can’t do this, I’m so sorry.” He forced his eyes shut, knowing his father would be staring at him, “Get in the car.” His voice had a dark tone to it, he was going to be hitting Marvel with the _“not mad, just disappointed”_ card for weeks. Marvel felt awful, he really wished he could go out of his home without feeling like he’s being judged all the time, or feel like he’s going to mess it all up.

 

Although he hated training with every piece in him, there was one part that was in some way, beneficial to him. It was to hide, or replace emotions, he could pretend to be sad or angry and people would believe it. That is the only way he could possibly win the games, by manifesting a whole new mask, he could act violent or confident when he most definitely wasn’t. He knew the only career he could act normal around was Glimmer, who was also volunteering for the games this year, unless the District 2 Careers were pulling the same stunt. Marvel hated thinking of what the other careers were like, you see them turning on each other every year, if that did happen, Marvel would be the first to go. He knew that by heart, because if a tribute that had a sword came flying at him, he’d let them kill him, was there a point? Not at all, pick your battles.

 

He sometimes thought of Glimmer, how they were going into the games together. They’d been friends for years, Glimmer always talked about them winning, Marvel agreed to it. They talked about how their victory tour outfits would be an all-time favorite, she had even drawn them out on her “fashion notebook” they were always red and blue, both dark shades with silver lining. Marvel liked the long sleeve design she made back in 5th grade, it was one of her first designs and it was very impressive for an 11-year-old. Glimmer frequently talked about how she wanted to possibly become a stylist for future tributes in The Capitol, he always told her she would make it, it tore him apart knowing her dreams could end in a couple months.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry this chapter is super short but I hope you enjoy!! xx


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